In which Percy Jackson finds himself tied up with the mischievous daughter of Apollo.
or
In which Juliet Alexander would do anything to make the son of Poseidon smile.
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𝟎𝟎𝟔.𝟓
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Percy loved New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.
Of course, the Mist helped. People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck. He took out his phone and made a call to Juliet for the second time. He'd called her once from his home before leaving for the underworld, but only reached her voice mail.
This time, Juliet picked up.
"Hey," Percy said. "You get my message?"
"Perce, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! I've been worried sick! Why are you always going on solo trips without telling anybody! You idiot!"
"I'll fill you in later," Percy said, a smile coming to his lips at her usual insult. "Where are you?"
"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens—Midtown Tunnel. But, babe, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"
"Trust me," He said. "I'll see you there."
He hung up. His hands were trembling. He wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from his dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what he was about to do, or the aching longing he felt towards Juliet. If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save him from getting blasted to bits.
It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped him at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.
Percy whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. He'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though he knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.
The first van was driven by Argus, their many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. They used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.
